PassportParking Becomes First Parking Company to Accept Bitcoin

CHARLOTTE, NC — PassportParking, Inc. announced a new service that allows customers to pay for parking with Bitcoin through its Mobile Pay service. Partnering with BitPay, a payment processor for digital currencies, PassportParking is the first company in the world to facilitate the acceptance of Bitcoin for metered parking spaces and off-street lots.

“We make it easy for businesses like the Passport Mobile Pay to accept bitcoin as a form of payment,” said Stephanie Wargo, Vice President of Marketing for BitPay.

PassportParking’s Mobile Pay service allows customers to pay for parking via mobile device, either with mobile app or by phone. Passport has partnered with BitPay to provide a seamless payment experience for its customers, providing a payment solution wherein customers using the mobile app will have the option of paying with Bitcoin.

BitPay’s Bitcoin Payment Gateway API is the most advanced and reliable bitcoin-processing platform for e-commerce and brick-and-mortar merchants. In addition to eliminating chargebacks and lowering processing fees, BitPay also allows merchants like PassportParking to settle each transaction in USD and receive next-day payments directly into their bank account. This greatly decreases the merchant risk in regards to price volatility.

According to Brad Powers, Senior Developer at PassportParking and Project Lead for Passport’s Bitcoin integration, “Accepting bitcoin is just the latest example about how Passport uses cutting-edge technology to improve how customers can pay for parking.”

The company combines cloud-based parking solutions with their Mobile Pay platform, providing a web-based console that allows for in-depth data analysis, real time reporting and rate management. For the customer, Mobile Pay enables fast and easy payment directly from any type of mobile phone, with cutting-edge technology that gives the customer the ability to start a parking session through app, SMS or phone call.

Passport will initially launch this service with a prominent parking operator in its hometown of Charlotte, NC. Park Charlotte, which operates parking lots in the Charlotte area, has announced they will begin using PassportParking’s Bitcoin service in 2014. Providing parking facilities the ability to cut out the middleman and accept payment directly from customers is a win-win for companies and their customers.

“Bitcoin is superior for online payments and today many traditional brick and mortar payments are moving online – you pay for your taxi using Square and for your parking using PassportParking,” said Michael Gronager, COO of Payward. “We have always used coins for parking so using bitcoin is the natural successor.”

About PassportParking

PassportParking, Inc (Passport) – headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina – is the industry’s leading provider of integrated cloud-based parking solutions. The company provides the most advanced technology and equipment in an enterprise suite that allows parking providers and owners to manage parking and enforcement operations more effectively and efficiently. Passport is backed by a highly respected group of investors, including Grotech Ventures and Relevance Capital. For more information, please visit www.passportparking.com.

About BitPay

BitPay is a Payment Service Provider (PSP) specializing in eCommerce, B2B, and enterprise solutions for virtual currencies. Visit https://bitpay.com.